


Nothing left but ashes

by PrinceofBadassery



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Hurt Bucky Barnes, M/M, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Past Torture, Self-Harm, Star Trek inspired
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-15
Updated: 2014-11-28
Packaged: 2018-02-25 11:29:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2620172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceofBadassery/pseuds/PrinceofBadassery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Sir, it’s too dangerous. He could wake up at any moment.” Hill said behind him, but he had already deactivated the force field and strode over to the man lying on the small cot. His heart started beating faster in his chest as he approached and an icy vice clamped down on it as he ever so slowly brushed away the brown strands of hair revealing the attackers face completely. Time had stopped, his knees threatened to give out on him. Before him was the man he had thought he would never see again, thought to be dead, killed in an explosion almost five years ago.</p><p>    "Bucky..."</p><p>    -----</p><p>    When a routine mission was rudely interrupted by four enemy ships, Captain Rogers thinks his day can't get any worse, not even when an intruder shows up and wrecks havoc on his ship.<br/>Steve Rogers can deal with that. When that intruder turns out to be his supposedly killed friend, that's when things go downhill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Space AU started out as a short little one-shot and then developed into a world of hurt and pain and now I'm looking at about three chapters (hopefully). You don't need to know anything about Star Trek in particular, it's really a generalized Science Fiction verse with a few terms borrowed here and there. The story will mostly focus on Steve's and Bucky's relationship, they just happen to be on a space ship.
> 
> This is part of my attempt to write 50.000 words worth of fanfiction for NaNoWriMo.

The sirens sounded loudly through the entire ship. Captain Rogers stumbled to the door of his office. The sudden and unexpected initiation of the emergency protocol had caught him in the middle of writing a rather boring report for HQ, he might have nodded off at some point, even if he wouldn’t admit it. The last few weeks had taken a toll on him. The pulsating red lights did nothing for his sense of orientation.

He had recollected himself and straightened his uniform before the doors to the bridge slid open. His first officer was already yelling instructions over the noise of the sirens.

“Situation!” He yelled as he approached the captain’s chair. Romanoff immediately slid out of it to position herself to his left.

“Two ships of unknown origin uncloaked 40 seconds ago. One on our backboard flank, one underneath the ship. Hailing frequencies are open, no answer. Suspect hostile intention.”

“Visuals.” Rogers ordered and the main screen came to life, split vertically into two separate screens, each showed a black compact vessel, barely larger than a passenger shuttles. No emblem or other identification was visible.

“They are charging weapons!” The cadet manning the scanners behind Rogers suddenly yelled.

“Shields up, ready phasers and load photon torpedo bays 1-4.” Rogers braced himself on instinct in his chair and wondered not for the first time why there were no seat belts. Romanoff had taken the seat next to him, flipping through the scans on the monitor mounted on the arm rest. Rogers was about to ask her opinion on the situations when he was cut off by the cadet behind him again.

“They’re firing, brace for impact.” Moments later the ship shook from the hostile hit.

“Any ideas?” He yelled to Romanoff, before pulling up his own monitor, he quickly disabled the sirens. Security protocols be damned, he couldn’t work like this. The scans showed nothing; even uncloaked the enemy ships were barely visible to the scanners, their own shield impenetrable. Their ships were of the very indistinct STRIKE class, a popular ship type for mercenaries. There were about as many possibilities for the identity of their attacker as there were habitable planets in the galaxy.

“Shields are holding.” The cadet announced.

“Hailing channels still open?” Rogers asked.

“Channels open.”

“This is Captain Rogers of the USS Ascheregen of the United Federation of Planets, identify yourself.”

No answer.

“Identify yourself or we will return fire. I’ll let that first shot slide, we can still settle this peacefully.”

Rogers pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine.” He muttered more to himself. He straightened in his chair and griped the arm rest a little tight.

“Take them out. “

Suddenly the sirens blared to life again. “Intruder alert! Intruder alert!” The computerized voice of the ship came over the speakers.

“What? Our shields are up.” Rogers looked to Romanoff but she was just as perplexed as him. He hit the comm button. “Hill, you seeing this.”

“Way ahead of you, Rogers. Science bay 2, we already have fatalities, we need another team down here, or an army possibly.”

“How many are there?”

“Just one.” He heard her breathing hard, phaser fire in the distance. “One guy, he’s wearing some kind or armor, possible body force field too.” Something exploded nearby and Hill cursed. Rogers gave a nod to Romanoff, who activated her own comms ordering two more security teams to the science labs in the lower part of the ship.

“Sir?” The cadet behind him asked, waiting for instructions. Rogers desperately needed a few moments to collect his thoughts, possibly take a calming breath, but no such luck. The next orders he barked were swallowed by two impacts to the side of the ship and he was thrown against his armrest.

“Two more enemy ships uncloaked on starboard, they have opened fire.”

“Noticed that.” Rogers mumbled. “Take those two first, photon torpedoes, evasive maneuver Fury-Alpha, get us out of here, we are a sitting duck!” He ordered. “Phasers on the other two, get their engines, I want at least some survivors.”

“What do they want?” Romanoff asked suddenly, she had been silent the entire time, which was not unusual. Rogers trusted her to do what was right; he hadn’t picked her for his first officer for nothing.

“I have a suspicion.”

“You’re right, Cap.” His comm suddenly activated and the voice of his Chief Science Officer Stark could be heard. “Actually, my clearance level is not high enough to know that, but if I had to guess, it might have something to do with that little secret that’s been sitting in the unused and extremely well secured science lab, am I right or am I right?” The man was obnoxious even over the comm.

“Enemy shields are holding.”

Rogers cursed.

“Hill, status?” The comm crackled for a second. “Bad, very bad. The fucker is a one-man army. We lost Jason and Brown, had to retreat to section C.”

“Whatever you do, do not let him into lab 3.”

“What? I thought that was empty.”

“It’s not.”

“What’s in there?”

“Classified.” Rogers heard Hill grumble something under her breath.

“Understood.” The comm was silent again.

“You know I got visuals of the guy here.” Stark said over his comm. Rogers sighed as the ship was hit with another round of enemy fire. “The guy is a tank, exoskeleton that prevents any matter guns from having an effect and a body force field that annihilates any energy weapon, but I think I got something.”

The ship shook again.

“Take those bastards out!” Rogers yelled.

“Shields at 56%, Sir.” The cadet announced behind him. What kind of weapons did those guys have?

“Romanoff.”

“They have the advantage of maneuverability; they seemed to have modified the thrusters from the standard issue we usually see in this type of vessel, along with the state of the art shields, they are fucking hard to hit.” Romanoff stated going through the stats on her monitor. “They are swarming us like a flock of birds slowly hacking away at our shields.”

“Our superior firepower means nothing if we can’t hit them.”

“Sir?” A person said to Rogers’ right.

“Ensign Wilson, now is not the time.”

“Sir, if I might suggest a different tactic?” That made Rogers’ look up from the stats he had been studying on his monitor.

“If I take the helm, I can get us close enough.”

“Do you have pilot qualifications?”

“Clocked my 800th hour in the simulator this week, Sir.”

“Never flown a ship for real?”

“No.” The ensign was nervous that was sure, but he held Rogers’ gaze. Several seconds passed and he could feel Romanoff’s stare drilling into the back of his skull. The ship rattled again.

“Shields at 34%.”

“Do it.” He nodded at Wilson, then turned back to the screen in front of him, watching the elusive four ships dodge phasers and torpedoes. The ensign previously occupying the helm got up and took over Wilson’s station without being prompted; probably glad he didn’t have to fly the ship anymore.

“Switching to manual control.” Wilson said, like he had done it dozens of times before.

“I hope you know what you are doing Rogers.” Natasha said besides him.

“Not much to lose at this point.” He gave her a look. “Stark, you still with me? We’re getting our ass handed to us by four fruit flies and I got a massacre in the science bay. You better have good news.”

“I’m about 87% sure I can take care of the last problem.”

Rogers sat up straighter.

“How?”

“Looks like Terminator’s got an artificial arm, a non-body energy powered one, meaning-“

“Meaning there is an external power source, I know, get to the point.”

“I think I can short circuit him.”

“How?” Rogers’ hated that he had to repeat himself with that guy.

“Localized EMP. There is still equipment down there that’s not trashed, scanners and shit like that, if I overload the –“

“Do it.”

“He has to be close to one, really close, I doubt the EMP will go further than three or four feet.”

“Coordinate with Hill, just do it! Rogers out!”

Only now did Rogers notice that they haven’t been hit once since he started talking to Stark. The enemy ships were still firing, that much he could see, but they weren’t hitting anything anymore.

“Wilson.”

“Yeah, Cap?”

Rogers let the informal address slide. “How are you holding up?”

“Peachy, I’m more concerned about Commander Ward manning the weapon’s station, Sir. We are basically making out with these birds and he didn’t get a single hit in.”

Rogers’ glanced at Romanoff, who raised a perfect eyebrow. He gave her a single nod and the side of her mouth quirked a little.

“Ward, Romanoff replaces you, were did you learn to shoot? You are wasting our torpedoes.”

“With all due respect, Sir-“

Rogers held up a hand. “Take a team down to the labs; see if Commander Hill needs assistance, you are no longer needed on the bridge.” He didn’t have to look at the other man to know he held back a remark that would most likely get him relieved of duty for a few weeks.

With Romanoff in charge of the weapons the four enemy ships had little chance of evading anymore. Wilson held true to his word and evaded not only the hostile fire but also brought the ship around in time for Romanoff to get two solid hits in on one of the birds, making it explode in a shower of shrapnel.

With nothing actually hitting the Ascheregen the shields were recovering as well as the cadet announced behind Rogers. Things were looking up. Now if only his head of security would give the all clear for the situation on the lower decks then maybe Rogers could get a break for a few minutes. He wanted a coffee and if possible a nap, but at least the latter had to wait until they had not only handled both the problems but also determined who the attackers were and why they wanted the artifact sitting in laboratory #3.

The gravity generators on the ship prevented Rogers from actually feeling the maneuvers Wilson did, but watching the screen was a good substitute. The guy was good, not only did he have perfect control over the Ascheregen, he also had good intuition about were the three much smaller enemy ships were going to be and adjusted accordingly. Rogers had never seen a pilot handle a HELIO class ship that well. Most had trouble even with the much smaller classes. He would have to promote the guy and give him a more permanent position at the helm of the ship.

Rogers watched Wilson close in on the second enemy vessel.

“Photon torpedoes ready.” Romanoff said. Rogers shifted in his chair. Then several things happened at once.

The enemy ships suddenly vanished, shortly followed by a shout from the cadet behind him. “They cloaked.” Wilson must have done something as they disappeared because he yelled. “Shit.” And then the ship was hit by something much larger than a photon torpedo. The whole ship shook as something grated against the hull. Then nothing.

“Shields holding at 11%, hull integrity not compromised.”

“What was that?” Rogers yelled.

“One of them just grazed us.”

“That would be my fault. I couldn’t see them anymore.” Wilson said, turning around to face Rogers. “I’m sorry.”

In that moment his comm crackled to life. “Hill to Rogers.”

“Tell me good news, Hill.”

“He’s down.”

Rogers let out a breath and melted into his chair, visibly relaxed at the news.

“I repeat. Intruder is down.”

“Is he alive?” Rogers rubbed a hand over his eyes. There was a pause on the other end, probably Hill asking for the information.

“Yes.” Hill’s professional tone barely disguised her real feelings on the matter and Rogers couldn’t blame her, he had yet to get the full report on the causalities. But with the enemy ships gone, the intruder was the only way to get any information on the matter.

“Get him into a holding cell, I’ll meet you there. Rogers out.”

He got up to walk to the door, trusting Romanoff to handle the rest now that the attackers were gone, when Wilson stood up to approach him.

“Sir, I take full responsibilities for what happened.”

“Not now, Wilson, we’ll talk later. Resume your post.” He vaguely gestured to the helm.

“Sir?”

“You got a ship to fly.”

Wilson straightened up. “Yes, Sir.”

The walk down to the holding cells was long and constantly interrupted by crew members bustling about, halting in their efforts to get the ship back to normal to greet the captain. Rogers always nodded at them encouragingly, wishing not for the first time, he could collect his thoughts in peace. The talk with Hill would be unpleasant to say the least. They had lost crew members today, women and men under his command had died.

Rogers took the opportunity of the temporarily empty hallway to lean against the wall and take a few deep breaths and close his eyes for a few seconds. It was not the first time he had lost people under his command, but that didn’t make it any easier.

He permitted himself this moment of vulnerability before squaring his shoulders and straightening his uniform. He had a responsibility towards his crew and it would do no good if one of them saw him slouching against a wall in the hallway.

The control room for the holding cells was crowded. Hill and her teams were all present as well as Ward with his three men. They were either talking in low voices to each other or standing silently, lost in thought, processing the event. All of them looking like they had just stepped out of a battlefield. Stark was also present, he was talking to Hill, showing her something on his tablet. The room fell silent when Rogers entered, all standing to attention immediately.

“Report.”

Hill stepped forward, crossing her arms behind her back.

“Seven dead, fifteen more injured. Laboratories #1 and #2 are completely destroyed. Assailant, alive but unconscious, is now in our custody. His identity is still unknown.” She rattled of the facts like she recited the ingredients of a cooking recipe.

“Yeah, about that.” Stark chimed in. “I’m running facial recognition and finger prints right now, searching all criminal databases, so far nothing. If that doesn’t bring anything up I’ll expand the search to missing persons and employee databases. DNA should be ready to go in half an hour as well and that arm should give us a few clues as well, if I can get a closer look at some point.”

That made Rogers frown. “Is it an un-known model? I thought those things were standardized. If it has a serial number that should solve the problem.”

“Have you seen that thing?” Stark poked at his tablet, shaking his head in disbelief.

“He killed two people with it by punching through the wall and crushing their heads.” Maria said, glaring at Stark.

“Amazing engineering.” Stark mumbled, ignoring her.

Rogers turned his attention to the pile of weaponry on the floor next to the holding cell, an assortment of energy weapons and grenades, nothing distinctive to any terrorist group Rogers could think of on the top of his head. The exoskeleton the guy had worn was also in the pile and a breathing apparatus. So that’s how he got in.

He finally turned to the man in behind the force field. They had stripped him of all weapons and accessories, including his boots, leaving him in a black turtleneck, combat pants and socks. He was lying on the small cot in the cell, right arm hanging down and the left one, the artificial one, draped over his stomach. Rogers wondered why they hadn’t taken it off, if Stark wanted to inspect it. The intruder’s hair was dark brown and long, about chin length and covered part of his face…

Face, his face was familiar. Without noticing what he was doing Rogers stepped forward, extending his hand towards the button that would turn off the force field.

“Sir, it’s too dangerous. He could wake up at any moment.” Hill said behind him, but he had already deactivated the force field and strode over to the man lying on the small cot. His heart started beating faster in his chest as he approached and an icy vice clamped down on it as he ever so slowly brushed away the brown strands of hair revealing the attackers face completely. Time had stopped, his knees threatened to give out on him. Before him was the man he had thought he would never see again, thought to be dead, killed in an explosion almost five years ago.

“Captain Rogers.” A voice brought him back into the present.

“I know him.” His voice cracked and he swallowed hard. He ran his thumb across the other man’s cheek then managed to turn away and face the others again.

“I know who this is.” He tried once more and earned perplexed stares from his crew members.

“What?” Stark raised an eyebrow at him. Rogers ducked his head and left the holding cell, the force field reactivating behind him.

“Who is he?” Hill asked.

Rogers looked to the floor, not able to meet his subordinate’s eyes.

“Bucky Barnes.”


	2. Chapter 2

„Okay, let me get this right. You’re telling us that is your long lost buddy, I mean, first officer, James Barnes, who was supposedly killed on a mission infiltrating an enemy ship, what? Five years ago?”

Hill was pissed, but Rogers had other problems right now. If that man really was Bucky why had he attacked his ship, he must have known Rogers was the captain. How had he survived in the first place and why was he working for the enemy now? Had he been a spy and had he faked his death? Rogers didn’t even want to consider the last option, there had to be another reason why he was back. And what was up with that arm?

To his crewmembers he said: “Might be an imposter, but we should be able to rule that out fairly quickly.”

“Already on it.” Stark interrupted. “It’s him. It’s a match for the DNA in James B. Barnes medical records, unless it’s a clone, it’s him.”

“Can we rule out that he’s a clone?” Hill asked.

“Gimme a sec here.” Stark hacked away on his pad. “I’m comparing his cell age to his biological age and if that both matches up to what Barnes’s age should be then yeah, we most certainly say he’s not a clone, unless it’s been done while he was an infant and the clone has aged naturally. There’s a 0.7% chance I’d say.”

Hill rolled her eyes. Rogers wasn’t sure whether to hope for those 0.7% or not. An imposter he could handle, but his best friend betraying him? Rogers kept his expression neutral, he had to remind himself that the man in the cell had just killed five of his crewmembers and injured several more, whether or not it was Bucky mattered little when it came to punishment for those crimes. At least that was what Rogers told himself.

“Yeah, no, it’s him. 99.3% match. Sorry, Cap.”

Rogers turned back to the man in the cell. “Is there any way to wake him up?”

“Actually, I think he’s already awake, life signs have stabilized, he just hasn’t moved.”

He stepped closer to the force field. “Get up.”

True enough the attacker – Bucky opened his eyes and sat up. He eyed Stark and Hill behind Rogers as he stood up, but focused his gaze on Rogers after he walked the short distance from the cot to the middle of the cell and stood directly in front of him. His bionic arm made a whirring sound and Rogers couldn’t help but stare as the metal plates on it shifted and rearranged themselves. Bucky paid it no mind, he was looking directly at Rogers, his eyes cold and calculating, so very unlike the Bucky Rogers knew.

“Why did you attack this ship?” Rogers tried to keep his voice level, tried to suppress the emotions that clawed their way to the surface, in his ears he mostly succeeded.

Bucky stayed silent, his face blank and his blue eyes staring at Rogers devoid of life.

“Who send you? What is your mission?”

No answer.

“God damnit, Bucky, why the hell did you attack my ship? Our ship?” Exploding like this was probably not the best course of action, but he couldn’t take it any longer. His best friend had just attacked his ship and now he was staring at him like some emotionless robot.

“Who the hell is Bucky?”

Rogers stumbled back a step. “What?” He whispered.

“What?” Stark repeated behind him.

Bucky’s brow furrowed the tiniest bit, but he kept his gaze on Rogers.

“You’re Bucky! What is going on? Why did you attack my ship?”

Bucky’s face returned to its previous blank state and he remained silent.

“I don’t think he will talk, Captain Rogers.” Hill said behind him.

This felt so incredibly wrong, the way Bucky had said those words, the blank stare, even the fighting. Bucky had never been so unnecessarily violent. Sure he could pack a punch, fight his way through enemy goons, but never with the kind of violence he had displayed in the science bay earlier. Nothing made sense. The least Bucky could give him was an explanations, they had been friends since childhood, it was the least he deserved, but Rogers couldn’t shake the feeling that something was not right when he looked at Bucky. He knew him, they had known each other for over 20 years when Bucky had been killed – gone MIA – and the person before him, that wasn’t Bucky.

He turned away from the cell and motioned for his two officers to follow him outside. Once they were securely behind a sound proof door he turned to them.

“Is there any possibility he might have been brainwashed?” Rogers put his hands on his hips and looked at his science officer.

Stark frowned and started typing on his tablet again, Hill crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“You really think that’s what’s going on here? That he was somehow turned by the enemy, whoever they are? Captain, with all due respect. He’s a traitor.”

He glared at her. “I’ve known Bucky all my life and the man in that cell is not him.” He pointed in the general direction of the holding cell to emphasize his point.

Stark cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow at him, peering up at him from his tablet.

“I know!” Rogers snapped at him. “I don’t doubt the evidence. He somehow survived that explosion, but there is something wrong. He’d never betray the fleet and he for sure wouldn’t betray me.”

“Well, I need further tests. Scan his brain for any signs that someone tinkered with it, I only had time to do a quick scan and so far I only know he’s in peak physical condition, better than before actually, according to his medical records, safe for the fact that he’s missing an arm, which brings me to the second point: I’d like to look at that prosthesis as well.” Stark blinked at Rogers a few times, then shook his head. “I didn’t have a first point.” He waved his hand. “Nevermind. That thing is fancy. I want to take it apart.”

Rogers pinched the bridge of his nose, he was starting to get the headache that has been long since overdue. “I doubt he’d consent to that, I’m not even sure he’s capable of consent.”

“The brain scan is non-invasive.” Stark remarked. “He wouldn’t even notice it, once I have him on the chair and I’d probably have to check him anyway, since I have no idea what that EMP did to him. I mean, he seems fine, but who knows.” He shrugged, smirking.

“I don’t like it.” Rogers got what Stark was implying. He crossed his arms over his broad chest. “We’ll ask first, then … we’ll see.”

“Of course.”

Hill made a derogatory noise, but followed them nonetheless back to the holding cells. She dismissed one of her units and Rumlow’s, leaving five crewmembers on guard duty.

Bucky hadn’t moved since they left, but now he looked up and watched them approach, he reached out with his right hand to touch the force field, tilting his head slightly. If it weren’t for the fact that his face was devoid of any emotion he might have looked curious. It sent cold shivers down Rogers’ spine.

The force field sparked where he touched it and Rogers knew that stung as hell, yet Bucky kept his hand on it for several seconds, before looking down and frowning. He then lifted his left and made to touch it as well.

“I wouldn’t do that.” Stark said and stepped besides Rogers. “Unless you want to get knocked out again. Same with the walls by the way, I think you punched enough holes in our ship already.”

Bucky blinked at Stark once, before dropping his hands again and focusing on Rogers.

Rogers cleared his throat before speaking. “We’d like to run some tests on you, see if you sustained any damage from the EMP, if that is alright with you.”

“You want to torture me for information.”

“What? No!” Stark exclaimed. “What the hell? Where did you get that from?”

Bucky’s eyes flickered over to Stark for a split second before resting on Rogers again. “That’s what you do with prisoners.”

“Not on this ship.” Rogers was about to launch into a long winded explanation, when Bucky said. “Alright.”

“Is that an ‘Alright, I agree to be examined’?” Stark asked hopefully, stepping closer to the force field and this time Bucky turned his head to look at him and nodded once.

“Alright!” Stark almost exploded as he spun around and half hopped half walked the few steps to the door. “I’ll get everything ready. Delivery to lab numero 12, please and thank you.” And he was out of the door.

Hill already barked orders to her men and women and soon enough Bucky was secured with heavy metal shackles around his wrists and ankles. The ones around his wrist were already connected like handcuffs, but the ones on his ankle were still separated so he could walk. In an emergency they could be magnetized and they would reconnect in a fraction of a second. They could even be connected to the cuffs on his wrist, totally immobilizing him. Rogers hoped that wouldn’t be necessary. Bucky showed no sign of his previous violent behavior and followed Hills’ instructions without complaint. He stepped out of the cell slowly and calm and they made their way down to the labs again; Hill walking in the front and her team surrounding Bucky. Rogers followed behind them and for the first time he could see the destruction Bucky had caused earlier. The doors to several labs had been blown open and even through the darkness inside Rogers could see the wreckage of what had once been a pristine and state of the art laboratory.

Stark’s lab was different in the sense that he had personalized it to the max and lots of the machinery had been built after his design. He had procured an adjustable chair from the medical bay and the portable brainscanner could be seen on a table nearby.

Bucky halted when he spotted the chair, but continued walking when he was prodded with a plasma rifle from the guard walking behind him. He sat in it without being asked and Stark disconnected the wrist cuffs from each other and secured them on the arm rests of the chair, he did the same with the cuffs on his ankles and lastly wrapped another metal band around Bucky’s chest, keeping him firmly in place.

“Elevated heart rate.” Stark’s personal assistant JARVIS announced over the speakers.

“Who’d have thought Mr. Roboto was even capable of that.” Stark remarked before he positioned himself to Bucky’s left and started unscrewing one of the metal plates of the prosthetic arm. Bucky outwardly showed absolutely no signs of distress; he kept his gaze straight ahead and was unmoving. Only when Rogers looked a little closer could he see the tense muscles in Bucky’s neck and the fist that was held a bit too tight.

Stark worked fast, removing panel after panel and poking around on the inside, muttering to himself or possibly his assistant and Rogers wondered if he was even needed here, he could get an in-depth report later. He knew protocol dictated that he’d be on the bridge and let his security officer supervise the procedure, but he couldn’t leave his best friend alone, even if he might not even remember him anymore. He needed to know what was going on and fast.

Rogers was still lost in his thoughts when something happened. He couldn’t actually see or hear anything happening, but from one moment to the next. Stark started gasping and keeled over, Bucky arched against his restrains, groaning in pain before he went slack and his head lulled to the side. He’d lost consciousness, just as all the plasma rifles the guards were carrying shut off.

“What the hell?” Hill said. Her team and her were obviously startled, but Rogers motioned for them to keep their weapons on Bucky as useless as it seemed. In a few quick strides he was over at Stark’s side.

“What happened?”

“EMP.” Stark wheezed and grabbed at his chest, he as leaning heavily on the table. Rogers only needed a moment to understand what that meant.

“Where?”

“Drawer on the left.”

Rogers located the drawer and pulled it out. The bright blue glowing object was hard to miss and he grabbed it without hesitation. Stark in the meantime had managed to pull his shirt up and was fiddling with a similar object embedded in his chest, but this one flicked on and off.

“What do I do?” Rogers asked, holding the arc reactor up in one hand.

“Rotate it clockwise and it should disconnect. Stark braced himself on the table behind his back and Rogers did as he was told. He quickly switched the two reactors, screwing the new one in counter-clockwise and it connected with a faint click. Stark took a few large gulps of air before he patted Rogers on the shoulders.

“Thanks, Cap.”

“Can’t let my best science officer die now, can I? But now explain what happened.”

“I must have triggered some fail-safe.” Stark leaned over Bucky, who was still out cold and checked his eyes. “He seems fine though. I don’t think it was supposed to knock him unconscious as well, but the first EMP must have wrecked something. There are tons of fried wires in there, some of them with older damage, wherever he came from, they must have only repaired what was necessary.”

He sat back down again and closed up the panels on the arm. “I’m not fiddling with this again until I got another back-up reactor, who knows what else is in there. I’ll scan it for now, see if I can find something. We’ll do the brain scan…” He screwed the last panel closed. “And I’d also like to take the opportunity to check how the arm is connected, which means, we kinda need to get rid of his turtleneck sweater-thing. One-sleeved whatever that is.”

“Alright. Do whatever is necessary. We have to keep him in the cell until we are back at HQ anyway, you know the dress code for prisoners.” Rogers managed a small smirk despite his best friend lying unconscious before him.

“That was one time and need I remind you that I actually managed to break that one replicator with my drink orders?” Stark pointed an accusing finger at him.

“You rigged the thing. And you most certainly deserved to be in that cell.”

Stark mumbled something and got the brain scanner ready. Rogers turned to Hills’ team.

“Backup’s on the way.” Hill said without prompting. “If the cuffs had released as well and he’d been conscious, we would have been toast, you know that Rogers?”

“The cuffs are designed to withstand EMPs, you know that Hill? It’s not like I could have anticipated this…” He trailed off and looked back at Bucky, asleep or rather unconscious, without the hard edges and the blank stare he looked just like the Bucky Rogers remembered.

The backup team arrived and Stark positioned the scanner over Bucky’s head and let the thing do its work. He cut away the shirt Bucky was wearing and gasped at the massive amount of scar tissue that was present on his chest and shoulder and no doubt his back as well, where the metal arm connected with his body. Rogers didn’t dare to look away, there was no doubt in his mind anymore that Bucky had not done this out of his own volition.

“That looks worse than I imagined to be honest.” Even Stark had lost the always present snark in his voice. Nevertheless he got to work, running his hand scanner over the metal-flesh connection and looking at the readouts on his tablet. “Artificial muscles, reinforced bones, artificial nerve receptors directly connected to his nerves, basically what you’d expect from a butcher job like this. That the guy is not keeling over in pain every time he moves the thing is a miracle. There is a reason connection sockets are used for artificial limbs today, without a resistor in between the strain on the nerves is enormous.” He shook his head and scanned the rest of Bucky’s torso. “I see old injuries here as well, broken ribs, scar tissue on the lungs… I’m not that kind of doctor but I’ll send these to Dr. Banner for consultation, see what he thinks about it.” He looked up at Rogers. “If that is alright with you.”

Rogers only nodded.

“I’ll be in my office, notify me as soon as you have results.” He was almost to the door when he turned around again. “And when you put him back in the cell, offer him pain killers first. If it’s as bad as you just said, I don’t want him in unnecessary pain.”

“Alright… what should I do about the arm?”

Rogers frowned. “Can you disconnect it?”

“No, I can’t even disable it, but I could rig something up that would restrain it. Keep him from moving it. Would make us a lot safer in case something happens and it’ll probably help him with the pain too, even if he might not see it that way.”

“Do it.”

He needed to get out before he was sick in front of his crewmembers, he needed to get to his office or his quarters and most of all he needed privacy to digest all of this. His quarters were closer but he would be expected in his office, so this was where he was headed. He had a job to do and as much as it pained him to see his friend like this, there was nothing he could do right now.

In his office he notified Romanoff of his whereabouts but requested absolute privacy, then he fell into his chair, put his elbow on his desk and his head in his hands. Only know did he realize that he should have requested pain killers for himself, his headache was killing him. He replicated a cold water bottle and gulped half of it down in one go, then held the bottle against his head, closing his eyes for a second. His thoughts were running rampage inside his head. The logical side of his brain was telling him to report to HQ, get orders from there, consider already turning the ship around or not, with a prisoner on board the mission could be endangered. But the scared little boy inside of him who was still mourning for his best friend told him to go back down into the science lab or possibly the holding cell and press Bucky to his chest and never let go. His best friend was back, Bucky was back and just as tears threatened to spill his comm link crackled and he answered it automatically.

“Captain Rogers?” It was Stark and his lack of nicknames was disturbing and didn’t bode well, more bad news then.

“Yes?”

“The brain scan is done, I will need a while to catalog everything and come to a conclusion-“

“So you found something?”

Stark was hesitant. “Yes.”

“Spill it.”

“It’s bad, Cap, really bad. Just from a glance I’d say he wasn’t just brainwashed, they tortured him too.”

When Rogers didn’t answer he continued.

“I’m sorry, Cap.”

Rogers said nothing, he didn’t have the energy anymore.

_Bucky…what did they do to you?_

**Author's Note:**

> Ascheregen [german] - shower of ashes after a volcanic erruption
> 
> English is not my native language, if you spot mistakes, please tell me.


End file.
